In the Beginning…

Sue Gilbreth welcomes 'the best Rotary club' to this weeks meeting. Sue thanked all the crew who helped today with setting up the meeting.

Pledge of Allegiance led by Candace Delbo

Inspirational moment by Christine Golden. As it's raining today, Christine told us some interesting rain facts and left us with a poem by Raymond Carver: 

Woke up this morning with

a terrific urge to lie in bed all day

and read.  Fought against it for a minute.

Then looked outside at the rain.

And gave over. Put myself entirely

in the keep of this rainy morning.

Would I live my life over again?

Make the same unforgivable mistakes?

Yes. Given half a chance. Yes.

Announcements…

Clinton gave us a list of past awardees of the Robert Skankey Humanitarian Award.  Please let Clint know of anyone your feel merits this recognition.

Coming Up…

Barry told us that next week we will be seeing Joe Bak, one of the most respected Old Time Musicians, and he will be playing for us. 

We will be dark 11/28 for Thanksgiving.

The following week, Dec.5th, Audrey Hough, who has previously given us a talk on the Horse Rescue Project, will be speaking to us about the educational project involving the schooner Mystic Ocean Adventure.

Janet reminded us about the holiday party.  Wednesday, Dec.17th at the El Roblar Hotel, 122 E. Ojai Ave. Invitations have been e-mailed. Please sign up and pay by Wed., Dec.3rd. The cost is $95, includes Dinner, drinks, dessert, tax and gratuity for staff.

Confessions…

We had two confessions today:

1. Christine Fenn said that her grandson had just been married.

  2. Clinton said that his wife's purse had been stolen from her car and the next day her car was stolen.

There was no fining today due to time constraints.  Most people were relieved!

Living Theater Academy--A dramatic youth arts program

Richa introduced students from her new Living Theater Academy. The students, to much applause, performed an excerpt from their current play An Enemy of the People. Richa's academy is a new dramatic arts program on El Centro in Meiners Oaks.  The debut performance opens Thursday Nov.20 at 7pm. For tickets use promo code 'Rotary'.

Bill Hatch introduced the Student of the month. Elizabeth Santonio attends Mira Monte School and her teacher, Mrs. Sinclair, thanked her for outstanding service to students and the school.  Elizabeth is Spanish speaking and assists others who are learning to speak english. Elizabeth received a certificate and a check for $100.

The Program: Police Chief for Ojai Steve Jenkins

Bruce introduced today’s speaker.  Steve Jenkins, a Ventura County sheriff's captain, is also the Ojai Police Chief. Steve grew up in Santa Paula but spent a lot of time in Ojai and has a soft spot for this city. 

His goals for policing Ojai:

1. Keeping the crime rate low. Our existing crime rate is already low.

2. Uphold Ojai's values and quality of life.

3. Be responsive to the needs of the community.

4. Be pro-active with the community's top concerns which are: 

     a) traffic, 

     b) e-bikes, 

     c) homelessness, 

     d) fire safety and emergencies.

Officer Jenkins tells us that there are usually around 3500 calls for police help each year.  They would be:

1. crimes against persons. That would include assault, forgery, identity theft, scam.

2. crimes against society. That would include drug violations, weapons violations.

3. crimes against property. That would include vandalism and theft.

The main causes of traffic collisions in our community are

1. unsafe speed

2. distracted driving

3. improper passing, turning

5. driving on the wrong side of the road

6. disobeying signals

To help reduce the number of collisions in the City of Ojai, a motorcycle officer has been employed recently.  Officer Jenkins was instrumental in deciding who this 'Motor' would be.  Rather than just give out tickets, he wanted an officer who was friendly and more interested in education.  

The Motor's goals would be to:

1. target the most common traffic collision locations

2. change driver behavior

3. check on complaint locations

4. make Ojai roads safer

5. reduce traffic collisions

Recently e-bikes ridden by young boys have been causing concern in our community. Officer Jenkins says that only about 10% of these kids are problematic. He is pleased to see the kids out playing rather than sitting home in front of screens. Again, main goals here would be to teach the kids rules and safety and enforcement when the kids aren't behaving.  Educating parents is important too.

Officer Jenkins closes by encouraging all of us to drive safer and to 'just be a good neighbor' to others.

Sue closes the meeting with a quote from Father Greg Boyle:

"The power of proper policing is in the relationship".